


I Want Love (Just a Different Kind)

by graytheglowinggay



Series: BL3 Goes Polyamory: Polyamorous Vault Hunters [2]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, During Canon, Everyone is Poly Because Vault Hunters, F/M, Hook-Up, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Transphobia, Multi, Older Man/Younger Woman, Other, Polyamory, Robot Sex, Robot/Human Relationships, Sexual Experimentation, Trans Zane Flynt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26808784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graytheglowinggay/pseuds/graytheglowinggay
Summary: Zane Flynt's been through a lot. Sometimes, he thinks he's beyond loving and being loved. When he meets the other Vault Hunters, that changes.Read "Girls, Boys, Bots" first.
Relationships: Amara/FL4K/Zane Flynt/Moze, Amara/Zane Flynt, FL4K/Zane Flynt, Moze/Zane Flynt
Series: BL3 Goes Polyamory: Polyamorous Vault Hunters [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955251
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	I Want Love (Just a Different Kind)

Zane Flynt was no stranger to broken hearts. Being a planet-hopping, devilishly handsome, downright badass agent-for-hire meant that he’d abandoned more than a few relationships when the job was done. He’d been married all sorts of times, for business, for pleasure; most of them were an awkward combination of both. Some of those spouses he felt bad about leaving behind; others, not so much. He wasn’t a young man anymore, though, and each lost relationship left more and more of a toll on him. Soon, the broken heart he was most familiar with was his own.

Zane hadn’t really set out to be a mercenary. Working outside of the law was sort of the Flynt family specialty, and his catalog of jobs was far from the worst that any of his kin had done. He left and struck it out on his own, joining several different black ops organizations associated with the major corporations and subsequently being put on their hit lists once he left (he used to joke that there were as many people out there who wanted to kill him as there were that wanted to fuck him). It wasn’t a sustainable way to live, but it came with one hell of a rush.

Eventually, though, his decisions started to catch up with him. The corporations that he two-timed had resources, and he was hunted down across the galaxy. Sometimes, they almost got him; he had the scars to prove it. Though he hid it through his usual humor, he was terrified. He’d worked for some pretty ruthless people, and he didn’t want to see how he’d be treated once they caught him. So, he returned to the last place he ever thought he’d go: Pandora.

Zane didn’t like to think that he believed in ghosts, but Pandora was certainly a haunted place. Even when he was sorely in need of money, he avoided taking jobs that would bring him there. All he could think of when he saw that planet was how awful it was for him when he was growing up. Kindness wasn’t exactly a trait that was encouraged in the Flynt family, and when he came out to his brothers, his dead name became their new favorite insult for him. He couldn’t get away from them fast enough. He had resolved to be better, to buck the Flynt family tradition of living life on the wrong side of the law. That resolve broke as soon as his funds ran dry.

At first, Zane joined up with the Crimson Raiders purely for the benefits he might have. Growing up on Pandora, he knew how valuable the Vaults were, and the treasures they held inside. He’d long since stopped caring about fighting for a cause for moral reasons, but the possibility of finding a Vault with untold riches inside was enough to pique his interest. Plus he hated cults. And bandits. So, he threw his lot in with the Crimson Raiders.

* * *

Two of Zane’s brothers had died because they were on the wrong side of a fight with a Siren, and he was not particularly eager to follow in their footsteps. He was understandably wary of Amara and was careful to not do anything to get on her bad side. Considering that he never got punched, he assumed he was doing well. He loved seeing her fight, though. She was one of, if not the best brawler he’d ever seen, and she had saved his ass on multiple occasions.

Now, if Zane had to describe his ideal woman, “could and will kick my ass” would be on the list as an essential. It was unsurprising that he quickly grew to have a crush on Amara, though he’d never call it by that name. He was too old, too experienced to have crushes. When the Vault Hunters went to Athenas as part of their mission to find the Promethea Vault Key, Zane could see the way the very planet made Amara more powerful. Her tattoos shone with greater brilliance than ever before, and her very aura changed. It was in equal parts terrifying and thrilling. And during the fight with Captain Traunt— well, he hated to use such a cliche term, but it was poetry in motion.

After they had secured the planet’s Vault Key fragment, the four Vault Hunters spent a little bit more time enjoying the beautiful planet, which was so different from Pandora and Promethea. Zane was glad that he hadn’t had to spend all that long on Pandora before the Crimson Raiders left for Promethea, it meant that he didn’t have very much time to wallow in less-than-pleasant memories. While Promethea wasn’t anything particularly beautiful, Athenas couldn’t have been more different from the highly urban planet. The planet was all mountains and open air, delicate white clouds with no promise of rain within them.

The Vault Hunters agreed that they’d spend the night on Athenas before traveling up to Sanctuary III in the morning (Maya had already transported the key fragment to Tannis, so its safety was no concern). After the four of them had dinner together, FL4K left to take their pets to hunt down ratch as a treat for a job well done, and Moze went to track down spare parts for her mech, and so he and Amara were left alone together. 

They were quiet for some time before Amara said something. She said she knew that Zane wanted her. At first, he denied it, but he couldn’t pretend for long. She pushed him up against the wall and they kissed. Her lips tasted like chai and electricity. It was all he had desired. It was better than what he had hoped for. Her strong fighter’s body pressed against his own, their naked forms entwined. Also, she did absolutely filthy things with her Siren arms. Several rounds later, Zane concluded that he’d had better luck with a Siren than either of his brothers had.

* * *

Zane was no stranger to tragedy in his life. When death was one’s occupation, loss was, if not a friend, at least an old companion. He’d lost allies, friends, lovers, and all types in-between. Each time, it hurt less and less. At least, that’s what he told himself. Despite all that, Maya’s death hurt. He and the other Vault Hunters were helpless to stop it, and Zane didn’t like feeling helpless. Besides Ava, who he comforted the best he could, he worried the most about Moze.

Moze was the youngest member of their crew, and the one he assumed to have the least experience with loss. Though, given that she had somehow escaped a Vladof Army contract, she had probably gone through more than he liked to consider. Zane respected her resolve and youthful enthusiasm. In several battles, Zane had nearly been convinced that their cause was doomed; Moze had just tossed out another frag and drove her Iron Bear into the fray.

She certainly wasn’t the type that Zane usually went for, but when he was drunk on victory and cheap liquor, his type tended to broaden. At the Witch’s Peat, he had dared Moze to kiss him. It was a stupid dare, one that he had expected the younger woman to turn down with a laugh and a fake gag. He hadn’t expected her to kiss him back. Well, they were both absolutely shitfaced, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise. He expected it to be one of those things that stayed in the bar where it happened, forgotten or “forgotten” when the morning’s light and a pounding headache arrived.

That wasn’t what happened, though. After the four of them had staggered back to Knotty Peak, Moze pulled him aside. She asked him why he dared her to kiss him. Zane didn’t have an answer. Kissing was something you did in Truth or Dare. Maybe it was the alcohol talking, maybe the leftover adrenaline from the mission. Maybe he wanted to know what youth tasted like again; it had been so long since he’d been young. He saw her, in the dim light of the Edenian bar, and thought about his first kiss back on Pandora. He couldn’t remember the person’s name. He and Moze were so close that night, under the stars. Maybe there was some hope for his redemption.

* * *

Zane had worked with bots before, on a number of jobs. They were commonly employed by corporations due to their low cost, their greater skill compared to humans, and the fact that they were far less likely to pull any kind of betrayal. This, of course, made them all incredibly dull to be around. But FL4K was different. 

Zane, like the other two Vault Hunters, had very little knowledge of what made FL4K tick, so to speak. Their motivations were as much of a mystery as their personal history was, and they weren’t exactly the sharing type. Zane was used to such things, though— any mercenary who wanted to survive in the business made a habit of never sharing more than they had to. However, Zane was able to gather some details. FL4K used to work for someone called “the Grand Archivist”, who Zane knew nothing about. Their chassis was of a design that Zane was totally unfamiliar with, and he had a hunch that their model might be several centuries old. 

FL4K was a creature of few words, but most of those words were either commands or praise for their pets. Zane didn’t hold much empathy in his heart, but he grew to enjoy the company of FL4K’s pets: Broodless, Meat-Thief, and Mr. Chew. Sometimes, FL4K trusted Zane to feed them or play with them, a responsibility that Zane took on with the utmost solemnity. He knew what trust meant to a loner like FL4K, and he wasn’t keen on breaking it.

Zane had slept with bots before. It was just something that happened when you had been around the block as many times as Zane had. Though there were some models, usually designed for such a purpose, that had clear and obvious ways to achieve intercourse with a human, most required some level of effort and experimentation.

Zane hadn’t planned on having sex with FL4K. The hunter had gotten injured after their fight to save Tannis from the Agonizer 9000, and Zane was the only one who knew enough about bot anatomy to help them. How was he supposed to know that the bot’s hip joints were an erogenous zone? When he touched them with his greased fingers, the bot made a sound somewhere between a notification ding and a deep vibrating sigh. It was unusual, but Zane knew enough about sex to recognize what the sound indicated. It was awkward between the two of them as Zane finished patching up FL4K’s injuries, but, finally, he got it done. There was silence, and then a look passed between them. Before Zane knew it, his clothes were off and the hunter’s dexterous fingers were between his legs. Every bot made a different sound at climax; FL4K’s was somewhere between a rapidly sounding error noise and an electronic bass drop.

* * *

Zane wasn’t a soft-hearted and trusting person— he wasn’t raised with the capability. When he was with Amara, Moze, and FL4K, watching the moon rise over the desolate wastes of Pandora, he felt something softer inside of him, like the buds of tree leaves emerging from bare branches on the first day of spring.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second fic in what I'm gonna be calling the "BL3 Goes Polyamory" series. Currently, it's a set of four character studies about the Vault Hunters of BL3 and their relationships with each other. Once I've gotten them all done, I might also post some smut stories for them that I've been working on.


End file.
